Yastrzemski out, but he avoids injured list
OAKLAND >> Outfielder Mike Yastrzemski was out of the starting lineup for the first time this season Friday, when the Giants opened a crucial series against the Oakland A’s.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said a MRI revealed Yastrzemski has a mild right calf strain and it’s unclear when he’ll be able to play again. Instead of sending Yastrzemski to the 10-day injured list for the remainder of the regular season, the Giants are hoping he’ll heal quickly so he can return to the field for the club’s playoff push.
“I think you will always consider an IL placement, and at the same time, I think that Yaz is important enough to this club where we really don’t know how long it’s going to be,” Kapler said. “Whether it’s one, two, three days or more, we want to ensure we have some optionality there. To the degree that he’s able to play for us in the coming days, I think we have to preserve that.”
Yastrzemski left Thursday’s 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners in the middle of the second inning due to calf tightness, forcing rookie outfielder Luis Basabe into the lineup. Kapler said Yastrzemski felt the tightness while swinging during his first-inning plate appearance against Mariners lefthander Nick Margevicius, but was able to play the field in the bottom of the inning and didn’t appear to be hampered while chasing after a foul ball down the right-field line.
“It hurts,” Yastrzemski said of missing time due to injury. “Obviously it’s not any way I’d like to be handling it right now. I’d like to be playing, but if I can’t go, I can’t go, which is unfortunate. But hopefully I’ll get healthy as soon as possible. These guys have been playing so hard and they’re going to keep playing their tails off and I have all the confidence in the world in them to make sure that I can get another chance to play this year.”
Yastrzemski appeared in each of the first 49 games the Giants played in 2020 and leads the team with 26 extra-base hits. His .285 average and .944 OPS have dropped off during the second half of the schedule, but his 157 OPS+ still ranks as one of the top marks in the league and his 2.3 fWAR is the seventh-best in the National League.
“He somehow finds a way to inspire the people around him and I’m certainly one of those people,” Kapler said. “Everyday I feed off of Yaz’s energy and I think the rest of the club does too. The fact that he slots always at the top of our lineup either in the one- or the three-hole speaks to how important he is to this club.”
With Yastrzemski out Friday, the Giants shuffled their lineup in an unusual way and inserted left fielder Alex Dickerson into the leadoff spot for the first time in his career. Dickerson has mostly batted second or third during the 2020 season, but he opened the game against A’s right-hander Chris Bassitt on Friday.
Dickerson and righthanded-hitting outfielder Darin Ruf have platooned in left field since the Giants cut Hunter Pence in August, but Ruf made his first start in right field this year on Friday due to Yastrzemski’s absence.
“This year I got a few innings in spring training and dating back to my time in Philly I played out (in right field) a little bit, so I just have to trust my eyes and my reads just like I would in left field,” Ruf said. “Try not to do too much and make the plays that I’m supposed to make.”
With Austin Slater unable to play the outfield due to an elbow injury and Basabe on the roster mostly to serve as a late-game defensive replacement, the Giants must sacrifice a better defense arrangement while Yastrzemski is out in hopes Dickerson and Ruf can provide a punch at the plate.
“I don’t think it’s the most comfortable outfield configuration right now,” Kapler said. “In a perfect world, we’d have Yaz out there. You could make a case that Basabe would do a nice job on defense out there. I don’t think Ruf and Dick are Gold
Glove winners, but they both work really hard for this moment to be able to step up and play solid D for us.”
Kapler said the Giants did consider adding an outfielder such as Steven Duggar, Jaylin Davis or Daniel Robertson to the roster Friday, but the club had a more pressing need for pitching and instead activated a pair of relievers.
A day after left-hander Wandy Peralta tossed three hitless innings in the most impressive outing by any member of the Giants bullpen this season, he was optioned to the Sacramento alternate site. Peralta had company as right-hander Rico García, who threw a scoreless sixth inning and earned his first major league win in Thursday’s 6-4 victory over the Mariners, was also optioned.
The Giants brought righthander Shaun Anderson and left-hander Andrew Suárez in from the Sacramento alternate site to fortify a bullpen that had to cover more than 13 innings in a twogame series against the Mariners this week. After lefty Drew Smyly lasted 3 2/3 innings in his return to the rotation on Wednesday, fellow southpaw Tyler Anderson was ejected for arguing in the bottom of the third inning in Thursday’s series finale.
Unless the Giants place a player on the 10-day injured list, neither Peralta nor García would be eligible to return to the major league roster before the club can add a 29th man for the second game of a doubleheader on Friday, Sept. 25 against the San Diego Padres.
Peralta’s 22 appearances and 23 innings both rank second on the Giants behind right-hander Tyler Rogers, who has pitched in 25 games and posted a 5.11 ERA in2020.